Decision

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (00BS) - Regulatory Judgement: 13 May 2026

Published 13 May 2026

Applies to England

Our Judgement

	Grade/Judgement	Change	Date of assessment
Consumer	C1 Our judgement is that overall the landlord is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards. The landlord has demonstrated that it identifies when issues occur and puts plans in place to remedy and minimise recurrence.	First grading	May 2026

Reason for publication

We are publishing a regulatory judgement for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (Stockport MBC) following an inspection completed in May 2026.

This regulatory judgement confirms a consumer grade of C1. This is the first time we have issued a consumer grade in relation to this landlord.

Summary of the decision

From the evidence and assurance gained during the inspection we have concluded that overall, Stockport MBC is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and is making effective use of its systems to identify and address potential issues and areas for improvement. Based on this assessment, we have concluded a C1 grade for Stockport MBC. 

How we reached our judgement

We carried out an inspection of Stockport MBC to assess how well it is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards, as part of our planned regulatory inspection programme. During the inspection, we considered all four of the consumer standards: Neighbourhood and Community Standard, Safety and Quality Standard, Tenancy Standard, and the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard.

During the inspection, we observed a meeting of the Stockport MBC Cabinet (Housing) Committee and the Scrutiny Committee. We also observed meetings of Stockport MBC’s arms-length management organisation, Stockport Homes, including one of its board meetings, a council assurance meeting, and its Customer Focus Committee. We met with tenants, the leader of the council, the cabinet member for housing and the environment, the chairs of the Stockport Homes’ group board and the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as senior staff. We also reviewed a wide range of documents provided by Stockport MBC.

Our regulatory judgement is based on a review of all the relevant information we obtained during the inspection as well as analysis of information supplied by Stockport MBC in its regulatory returns and other regulatory engagement activity.

Summary of findings  

Consumer – C1 – May 2026

Stockport MBC meets the outcomes of the Safety and Quality Standard. It has an accurate, up to date understanding of the condition of most of its homes, including assessment against the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Stockport MBC uses this information to inform its strategic approach to maintain and improve homes. It is actively targeting properties where it has been unable to gain access and has a clear programme in place to achieve full understanding of the condition of its homes by the end of May 2026.

Stockport MBC has an established framework in place to monitor how it meets the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard, which draws upon a range of sources of information. Stockport MBC reports that over 99% of its homes meet the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard and it has a costed programme to remedy homes that do not meet the standard.  

Stockport MBC is delivering an effective, efficient and timely repairs, maintenance and planned improvements service. At the time of the inspection over 99% of emergency repairs and 97% of non-emergency repairs were being completed within target timescales. Stockport MBC is making further improvements to its repairs service with the introduction of a new customer portal that will enable tenants to report and track repairs in real time.

Stockport MBC takes a proactive approach to dealing with damp and mould and uses a range of surveying techniques and specialist equipment to diagnose the cause of damp and make appropriate remediation. At the time of the inspection Stockport MBC reported that it meets required timescales to investigate, identify and repair hazards, including damp and mould.

Stockport MBC has demonstrated that it is taking all reasonable steps to comply with legal health and safety requirements in line with the Safety and Quality Standard. During the inspection Stockport MBC provided evidence that it has appropriate systems in place to ensure the health and safety of tenants in its homes and associated communal areas. Following a self-referral in December 2025 regarding fire safety and overdue fire remedial actions, Stockport MBC acted quickly to implement appropriate mitigations and has clear plans for the completion of the works.  

Stockport MBC has five buildings between 11 metres and 18 metres in height and a further 25 buildings comprising of at least 18 metres in height or at least 7 storeys. All buildings have up to date fire risk assessments. Stockport MBC is managing the building safety risks within its tall buildings with remedial work in progress and appropriate mitigations in place. Stockport MBC has produced, in consultation with tenants, a Building Safety Resident Engagement Strategy for tall buildings. Additionally, tenants living in homes in tall buildings can feed back their views through a building safety residents’ panel.

In relation to the Neighbourhood and Community Standard, we gained assurance that Stockport MBC works in partnership with other organisations, including the police, to deter and tackle anti-social behaviour and hate incidents in the neighbourhoods where it provides social housing. Community safety is a strategic priority, with internal and external partnerships supporting the resolution of anti-social behaviour and hate incidents. All cases are subject to harm-centred risk assessments, and we saw how Stockport MBC’s approach to tackling anti-social behaviour has been strengthened through tenant scrutiny.

In relation to the Tenancy Standard, we saw evidence that Stockport MBC offers tenancies or terms of occupation that are compatible with the purpose of its accommodation, the needs of individual households, the sustainability of the community, and the efficient use of its housing stock. Stockport MBC has reviewed its allocations policy to increase its flexibility to make direct lettings to support homelessness reduction. It also provides a dedicated service to help tenants move into more suitably sized properties.

Stockport MBC meets the requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. It is committed to treating tenants with fairness and respect. Throughout our inspection we saw evidence of a respectful, fair and positive culture towards tenants by both officers and councillors. This was reflected in Stockport MBC’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2024/25 where 93% of the tenants who responded felt that Stockport MBC treated them fairly and with respect. Tenants have also shaped a new Customer Experience Strategy focused on providing excellent customer services.

Stockport MBC understands the diverse needs of its tenants. It holds comprehensive information for its tenants including additional support needs. It uses this information to help deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants. We saw evidence that this is being used to proactively contact tenants who have not recently accessed services. An Age Friendly Strategy sets out how Stockport MBC adapts its services to meet the needs of its aging tenant profile, and a range of support is offered to tenants with disabilities, complex needs, language and cultural barriers.

Stockport MBC gathers its tenants’ views in a range of ways and provides tenants with meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise strategies, policies and services. Stockport MBC provides its tenants with the opportunity to scrutinise its performance and influence decision-makers at Stockport MBC and Stockport Homes. 1,300 tenants participate in regular consultations on strategies, policies, and service changes through a customer voice membership group. We saw evidence that tenant feedback has impacted positively on communication with tenants, and on the repairs and complaints services.

The quality and range of information that Stockport MBC makes available to tenants meets the expectations set out in the consumer standards. We found that Stockport MBC addresses complaints fairly, promptly, and effectively. Learning from complaints is systematically captured, shared with tenants through the website and other customer communications, and used to drive service improvements. A customer complaints advisory panel with tenant members meets on a quarterly basis to review complaints.

We found that Stockport MBC works collaboratively with its arms-length management organisation, Stockport Homes. There are effective mechanisms in place to provide regular oversight of service delivery, and this enables issues to be identified and where necessary remedied effectively.

Background to the judgement

About the landlord

Stockport MBC owns 10,832 social homes, including 25 tall buildings registered with the Building Safety Regulator. The management and maintenance of Stockport MBC’s homes is provided by its arms-length management organisation, Stockport Homes.

Our role and regulatory approach

We regulate for a viable, efficient, and well governed social housing sector able to deliver quality homes and services for current and future tenants.  

We regulate at the landlord level to drive improvement in how landlords operate. By landlord we mean a registered provider of social housing. These can either be local authorities, or private registered providers (other organisations registered with us such as non-profit housing associations, co-operatives, or profit-making organisations). 

We set standards which state outcomes that landlords must deliver. The outcomes of our standards include both the required outcomes and specific expectations we set. Where we find there are significant failures in landlords which we consider to be material to the landlord’s delivery of those outcomes, we hold them to account. Ultimately this provides protection for tenants’ homes and services and achieves better outcomes for current and future tenants. It also contributes to a sustainable sector which can attract strong investment. 

We have a different role for regulating local authorities than for other landlords. This is because we have a narrower role for local authorities and the Governance and Financial Viability Standard, and Value for Money Standard do not apply. Further detail on which standards apply to different landlords can be found on our standards page. 

We assess the performance of landlords through inspections and by reviewing data that landlords are required to submit to us. We also respond where there is an issue or a potential issue that may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards. We publish regulatory judgements that describe our view of landlords’ performance with our standards. We also publish grades for landlords with more than 1,000 social housing homes. 

The Housing Ombudsman deals with individual complaints. When individual complaints are referred to us, we investigate if we consider that the issue may be material to a landlord’s delivery of the outcomes of our standards.  

For more information about our approach to regulation, please see Regulating the standards.

Further information

• Regulating the standards
• Regulatory standards for landlords

Related documents

• Decent Homes Standard